I've always liked the 35mm equivalent angle of view (AOV), enjoying many primes at this focal length on various cameras. With the Micro 4/3 system, I avoided it because the Panasonic 14mm lens (28mm equivalent AOV) offered a combination of AF speed, size, and sharpness I couldn't get with a 17-18mm lens for our system.

Enter the new Oly 17/1.8:
-Almost as small as the Pana 14
-Similar sharpness to the Pana 14
-A stop faster than the Pana 14
-That 35mm equivalent angle of view I always loved

Funny thing - the new Oly helped me realize I now prefer the 28mm to the 35mm equivalent AOV. I've sold the new Oly and gone back to my beloved little Pana 14.

28mm gives me just a bit more of that wide angle attitude than 35mm but not so extreme as a 24. It's as wide as I can go for general use including people photography, which is my thing. Plus if I ever want that 35mm framing, it's just a moderate crop away in post.

You know, I was never a fan of the 28mm FoV with either my film or APS-C bodies. I got the 14 because it was so small and fairly cheap. Once I put it on the E-PM1 it became one of my favorites, especially for indoor work but also for some street work. I think my preferences changed with time and it took a new lens with (in this case) a size advantage to get me to use it enough to really appreciate it.

I, too, am quite fond of 28mm equivalent as an everyday lens. I think part of that is that with the rise of ultrawides, the public (and especially the photographic public) is just more comfortable with wide-angle distortion, so the moderate WA effects that you see with the 28mm don't seem abnormal for everyday images. 28mm used to be WIDE. Now it's...wide?

Personally, coming from a photojournalistic background I find wide angles to be more intimate--to get a good image, you often have to get close.

The 14mm is a great little lens! It's economical, small (making the smaller :43: cameras pocketable) and it is surprisingly sharp. It has great color and good contrast. I tend to prefer longer/telephoto lenses but this one is definitely a keeper. :smile:

Ditto, I really enjoy my 14. Used it more than the 20, and now forms an ideal spread for me with a 14, 25, and 45 combo. And you can't beat the size! Fits in my jacket pocket. I think it focuses plenty quick for me on my GX1, and it was actually adequate on the E-P1. Thumbs up!

It's apparent that there is a degree of sample variation with the P14, some complain that it's softer than their kit zooms at 14mm whilst others claim it is very sharp and in the P20/PL25 ballpark. That really is quite a disparity. Mine luckily is amazing and even though I have wanted to sell it and buy the all black version I simply will not take the risk...that's how good I think my copy is !

I have purchased the new O17 but am away on holidays at the moment and missed the delivery by 2 days, my brother has been collecting my mail and my lens is waiting for me on his kitchen bench. I don't expect it to be any better optically than my P14, probably on par...but I got it for the 'snap to focus' mechanism which if I enjoy, I will then keep the lens.

But man, regardless of how much I end up liking or disliking the the new O17...none of it will change my opinion that the P14 is simply incredible value for money.

I love shooting with 14mm on my P14-45.
Should I buy the P14 to complement it, or the P14-45 is good enough.

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I'm actually selling mine and my 45 and replacing w/ 14-45 as a good walk around. I think the 2 14's are really close if not equal in IQ. The 45mm oly is sharper( slightly ) and way faster, but not having to change lens and way less money are worth it to me. I still have the 25 PL for indoor stuff and a Rokkor PG 50-1.4 is coming.

Funny thing - the new Oly helped me realize I now prefer the 28mm to the 35mm equivalent AOV. I've sold the new Oly and gone back to my beloved little 14.

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I haven't done the math or a test on this but I'm wondering if your experience isn't the results of how Mu43 works?

First these lenses auto correct of distortion w/ most RAW converters. On the 14, reviewers show it has 5% barrel distortion so you lose that much FOV w/ correction. Then the 4:3 format is a bit narrower than FF @3:2 so we lose a bit more of the edges.

So together the 14 has a visual feel that is narrower than a 28 on film by a noticeable amount.

In my film days, I too did lots of street photos w/ both 35mm & 28mm & loved both!

If I've got this right, a 5% barrel distortion correction means we effectively have a 16.4x13mm sensor. With the use of a FOV calculator, I found that the horizontal FOV of a 14mm lens w/ 5% barrel distortion is 60.7 degrees. That's almost exactly between a 28 & a 35mm on a FFer. In that format, those 2 lenses have horizontal FOV of 65.5 & 54.5 degrees. But in 4/3 format the vertical FOV of a 14mm is taller than either a 28 or 35mm in FF - 50 degrees vs 46.5 & 37.9 respectively.

I'm a total 28mm junkie, although I'm only mildly crazy about the Pany 14mm. I had a GRD3 with a fixed 28mm, I had a GXR-28 which was a fixed 28 with a 3:2 aspect ratio. I now do a LOT of my shooting with an X-Pro with the 18mm lens, a roughly 28mm equivalent (slightly wider), also in 3:2. I also have an LX7 with a multi-aspect sensor and and a step zoom and I spend most of my time at 28mm in 3:2. I think 28mm with a 3:2 aspect is what my brain is wired for - I just seem to see totally naturally and instinctively in that frame.

And on my m43 gear I spend more time with my 12mm than with the 14 because its not all that much wider and its such a perfect lens for the type of shooting I do. Even at 4:3 its still slightly wider than a 14 at 3:2, but not by enough to matter. And when I sometimes crop down to 3:2, it comes out very similarly...

I'm expecting a 17mm fairly soon from Olympus - I got it for $369 during their accidental sale, so I may have to wait a while, but it'll get here. But I probably won't use it nearly as much as the 12 or the 28mm equivalents on my other cameras. I expect to react to it about like Amin did, but I'll probably keep it as a good mid-length lens that's reasonably good in low light. And small enough to stick on my EPL5 and stick in a pocket for those occasions when I just want to have a small camera with one lens on hand and want more low light capability than the body cap...

the 14mm performs pretty much identical to the Lumix 14-42 at 14mm, so if you would rather have the handiness of the zoom you're mostly only giving up a little on the maximum aperture in exchange for not having to swap lenses. I thought about selling my 14mm, but I ended up keeping it because of the small size. My copy might not be all that hot, it's not going to win many sharpness contests, but like my Olympus 17mm f.28, it's sharp enough. I would probably rather have the Olympus 12mm, but YIKES!!!11!!!1! it comes at a pretty dear price.

If I've got this right, a 5% barrel distortion correction means we effectively have a 16.4x13mm sensor. With the use of a FOV calculator, I found that the horizontal FOV of a 14mm lens w/ 5% barrel distortion is 60.7 degrees. That's almost exactly between a 28 & a 35mm on a FFer. In that format, those 2 lenses have horizontal FOV of 65.5 & 54.5 degrees. But in 4/3 format the vertical FOV of a 14mm is taller than either a 28 or 35mm in FF - 50 degrees vs 46.5 & 37.9 respectively.

Interesting & helpful at least to me.

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No, 14mm is not the actual focal length. It corresponds to the focal length which would give the angle of view corresponding to the final, distortion-corrected JPEG image. It's just like a 28mm lens on full frame (same diagonal angle of view, slightly less horizontal AOV, slightly greater vertical AOV). The same is true for all MFT lenses - the nominal focal length corresponds to the final image, not the image prior to software correction.

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